The world's leading maker of desktop printers, Hewlett-Packard, has introduced the first inkjet printer built to take advantage of the multi-billion dollar photographic reproduction industry.
The company said it would adopt a six-colour thermal inkjet printing process on a resolution grid of 300 x 600 dots per inch (dpi) with the DeskJet 690C.
The printer was launched last week in Hong Kong with a new colour-capable small workgroup printer for businesses - the DeskJet 870Cxi - and will first go on sale in Asia.
Hugh Amick, Singapore-based manager for HP's Asia-Pacific consumer hardcopy division, said Hong Kong would offer an excellent test market for the 690C because of its PC market maturity.
'Because the US personal computer market matured earlier, the great majority of PC owners are using slightly older technology than in Hong Kong. 'And if you don't have at least a high-end 486 or a Pentium-based computer, then you don't have the ability to run the applications that work well with colour printers. Hong Kong has that.' Mr Amick said the territory's competitive desktop inkjet market would provide a good indicator of the acceptance of HP's new technology.
HP and competitors Canon and Epson enjoy roughly equal market share in Hong Kong, depending on product refresh rates at different times of year.